You spent a lot of time and money building your email list and making sure it is up to date. Now it is time to make that list pay for itself. If you sell products or services, it is easy to see how monetizing an email list would work. You can simply take that list and use it to promote the products and services you already have for sale. But what if you have an email list and no product or service to promote? What if you have a blog and a list of subscribers? How do you turn that potentially valuable information into actual cash?

Fortunately, there are a number of great ways to monetize your email list, from affiliate marketing to charging for premium content. Here are some ideas to get you started.

Use a 1 to 4 ratio when creating your content. Your subscribers provided their email because they want something of value. For every solo email you send, you should be sending four newsletters with useful content your readers will enjoy.

Add affiliate marketing to your blog. If your blog has a solid readership and a loyal following, you could benefit from affiliate marketing. Just find products that would be of use to your readers and place the links strategically on your blog.

Promote a membership for premium content. If you consistently provide quality content and information to your readers, they may be willing to pay for exclusive access. Promoting a premium site with exclusive content is one of the best ways to monetize your email list.

Create a product or service specific to your niche. Niche marketing is one of the best ways to monetize any email list. Focus on creating a quality product. You will make more from a quality product than a cheaper but higher margin one.

Offer benefits for readers who sign up under your link. This technique will help you monetize your list and build your search engine rankings.

Use solo ads to promote another other websites or products. You can get paid each time someone you refer makes a purchase.

No matter how you choose to monetize your email list, it is important to move slowly and not expect overnight results. Trying to go too fast or do too much could actually turn off your readers and cause them to unsubscribe.

Monetizing your email list should be the natural result of the relationship you have built with your readers and not the original goal. It is fine to make money from your email list, but that aspect will evolve over time if you have done everything else right. Instead of trying to monetize your list from day one, focus on building a strong relationship with your readers instead. The results will not come overnight, but the long term results will be much better.